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1. Rigoberta Mench Tum Born in 1959 in
Guatemalas
department of El Quiche
Native language
is Quiche (Kiche)
Mountainous topography of Quiche: site of much guerilla activity and subsequent army repression
3. I, Rigoberta Mench: An Indian Woman in Guatemala (1983) While living in exile in Mexico, Mench gave a testimonial account of Guatemalas civil war to Elisabeth Burgos Debray
David Stoll critique: Mench could not have been eye-witness, account is unreliable
4. 1992: Mench awarded Nobel Peace Prize (500th anniversary of Columbus arrival to the Americas)
Activism towards recognition of indigenous rights throughout the Americas
Presidential candidate in 2007
5. Ethnic Identity Markers in Guatemala Language
not easily learned or assumed
generally requires intense interaction with native speakers
Dress
Marker of ethnicity: marks one as indigenous (traje) or ladino (Western clothing)
more fluid than language
Religion, surnames, phenotype
6. huipil (pot): blousecorte (uq):skirtfaja (ximbal): belt
7. Dress Dress and fluidity of identity: can emphasize and present different aspects of identity
Place specific: traje associated with ethnic group and with specific towns
Traje also indicates wealth, age, religion, worldliness of wearer
8. Elaborate Traje
10. Cultural Significance of Weaving
11. Weaving on a Backstrap Loom
12. Mens Traje Tecpan region: white pants, blue or white shirt, dark wool jacket, hat, sandals
Use of traje disappearing among men
Greater participation in non-Maya world
13. Declining Use of Traje Kaqchikel girls not learning how to weave because spend more time on schoolwork
Globalization:
Influence of television that gives status to Western clothing (shorts, miniskirts, jeans)
Ropa americana (second-hand clothing from US sold cheaply in Latin America)
14. Maya Revitalization Mixing of traje:
Solidarity
Status
Admire beauty of clothing
Mens bomber jackets symbolic of participation in Maya movement in 1990s
15. Maya Movement Cultural revitalization: encourage women to use traje and learn to weave
Why dont men return to using traje?
Male participation in non-Maya world
Impossibility to hide ones identity in traje
Did not grow up wearing traje